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Uniting Bo and Makeni: Politics and the Prospects for National Cohesion in Sierra Leone

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Uniting Bo and Makeni: Politics and the Prospects for National Cohesion in Sierra Leone Uniting Bo and Makeni: Politics and the Prospects for National Cohesion in Sierra Leone. Institute For Governance Reform (IGR) 31A Wilkinson Road| www.igrsl.org A Discussion Paper for CSOs and Sierra Leone Media July – 2020 1. Corruption and Violence are Afraid of Organised Citizens Bo and Makeni are the second and third largest cities of Sierra Leone. The two cities are homes to Mendes and Themes, the two largest of the 16 ethnic groups. Each of the two groups account for slightly more than 30 percent of Sierra Leone’s 7.5 million people. Based in the Southern Region, the Mendes of Bo historically support the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) while Temnes in the Northern Region, predominantly support the opposition All People’s Congress (APC). Rivalry between political elites from these two groups have defined the politics and stability of Sierra Leone in the last six decades of independence. It is ironic that Sierra Leone is consistently ranked among the most peaceful1 countries in Africa, and yet on a routine basis, conversations on violence and political tensions dominate local media. Equally ironic is that, in a society where inter-ethnic and cross-regional marriages2 are common and religious tolerance is high, concerns about ethno-regional tensions have become a defining feature of politics. The reality however, is that like communities in Sierra Leone, Bo and Makeni are inherently peaceful.3 Concerns around violence and division only emerge when it comes to politics, elections and resource distribution. Furthermore, extremism and division are propagated by a select few - political elites that benefit from stoking these tensions which keeps the people of Bo and Makeni polarised. This paper unravels several critical issues that undermine Sierra Leone’s path to sustained political stability and national cohesion with a focus on unlocking the potential of civil society and the media as significant makers and shapers of the future of Sierra Leone. We argue that for Sierra Leone to achieve cohesion, we must address the conditions that incentivize fear mongering by a minority who mobilise ethnic and regional identities for political ends. We conclude that a citizen movement on corruption has been a missing component in the fight against graft, and can bring 1 Sierra Leone is the 4th most peaceful country in Africa in the GPI 2020, https://countryeconomy.com/demography/global-peace-index 2 Spouses of all presidents and heads of state of post-independence Sierra Leone are from ethnic groups different from their husbands. 3 See Annual Global Peace Indices 2011 to 2020 CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES OF GOVERNANCE VOL XIV 1 new energy in the fight against impunity. The 2019 Global Corruption Barometer states that “despite fears of retaliation and inaction, people are hopeful. Fifty-three per cent of citizens believe ordinary people can make a difference in the fight against corruption”4. A citizen movement of corruption and national cohesion is particularly useful because over the last two years, Sierra Leone has seen a renewed vigor in the fight against corruption and key areas have demonstrate solid progress. The country passed the Control of Corruption indicator on the US Government’s Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC) score card for 20195. 2. The Politics of Greed and Ongoing Tensions in Sierra Leone Since the 2018 elections that ushered in a new government, there has been anxiety, tension, and some instances of outright violence between political groups. There have been several attempts by the main opposition APC to stage demonstrations within and outside of parliament against perceived unfair treatment by the governing SLPP. Also, in the midst of the COVID outbreak, there was prison riot that led to the death of 31 inmates and prison officers6; this was also linked to a recently concluded treason trial involving the former APC Minister of Defense, Mr. Paolo Conteh. There have also been riots in the iron-ore mining town of Lunsar and the fishing community of Tombo. These tensions are occurring despite four largely peaceful elections since the end of the civil war as well as political turnover from one party to another on two different occasions. At face value, these tensions may appear as mere policy contestations between political groups. However, a closer look reveals more about what Bayart (1989) has called a "politics of the belly," where politics is a quest for the creation of personal wealth for individual families and their ardent supporters. Politics of the belly has long been used to describe not just African politics but politics in other "developing" countries contexts as well. For example, Alevi (1972) applies the concept to Pakistan and Bangladesh7, Forest (1994) to Nigeria8 and Wrong (2009) to Kenya9. More recent examples of regime-sponsored extraction include the actions of Isabel dos Santos of Angola as well as Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue of Equatorial Guinea.10 For many developing countries, it is difficult and sometimes impossible for individuals to form capital on their own without state facilitation; hence politics becomes a matter of wealth extraction. For a country like Sierra Leone where poverty is extreme and pervasive, access to state resources is one of the markers that can differentiate poor communities from rich ones. For example, in the capital of Freetown, the establishment and expansion of settlements can be linked to regimes. 4Global Corruption Barometer Africa 2019: CITIZENS’ VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES OF CORRUPTION 5 https://www.mcc.gov/who-we-fund/scorecard/fy-2019/SL 6 7th July 2020 - Report by Director General of Sierra Leone Correctional Services on prison riot of 29th April 2020 7 Alevi H. 1972; The State in Post-Colonial Societies: Pakistan and Bangladesh 8 Forest T. 1994; The Advance of African Capital: The Growth of Nigeria Private Enterprise. University Press of Virginia 9 Wrong M. 2009; It’s Our Turn to Eat. Harper Collins Publishers 10 As Angola Accuses Billionaire Isabel Dos Santos Of Fraud, Her Empire Begins To Unravel. Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2020/01/23/as-angola-accuses-billionaire-isabel-dos-santos-of-fraud- her-empire-begins-to-unravel/#39c9b24849da CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES OF GOVERNANCE VOL XIV 2 The Spur Road community was built by the ruling SLPP families in the 1960s and Juba and Hill Station was expanded by families with direct access to the APC in the 70s and 80s. With the change of Government, SLPP families under Kabbah expanded the IMAAT area following the end of the war in 2002. In the last ten years of Koroma, new settlements sprang up, including the IMAAT and Babadorie extensions as well as the construction of Makeni, Koroma’s hometown. In fact during Koroma’s rule , many government quarters were allocated to private individuals and civil servants affiliated with the APC. Clearly, in the last six decades of independence (APC rule of 34 years, SLPP rule of 20 years) politics has largely been about concentrating wealth among the elite, with little attention paid to economic diversification and reducing poverty. Changing this extractive politics should be at the center of state building efforts of civil society and the media. Sierra Leone’s civil society and media have yet to fully appreciate their role in the conversation beyond superficial rhetoric around tribalism and regionalism which functions largely as a distraction from the main issues of concern - the looting and (mis)appropriation of state resources for personal gain. A technical audit by the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) on four sectors (Energy, Infrastructure, Banking and Telecoms) covering 2016-2018 documented that “over US$1 billon was lost to corruption”11. Another report released in May 2020 by the UK Government-funded PFM consortium estimates that in the same period, the volume of corruption ranged between US$1.47 billion to $2.18 billion, which was higher than the combined revenue of all three years ($1.12 billion)12. There have also been reported complaints about corruption even in the distribution of relief items during COVID-19. 3. The Political Constraints To Building Peace and Accountable Institutions This section discusses the environment in which institutions operate in Sierra Leone and highlights the institutionalized constraints this poses to inclusiveness and building effective institutions. It builds on two important opportunities to unblock key constraints: a) the Bio administration started a promising conversation with civil society in June 2020 on social accountability, inclusiveness and co-creating solutions; b) There has been open commitment by the APC to easing tensions and fostering an atmosphere for good governance to support national development efforts. Despite these stated interests, the focus of political actors on self- preservation creates institutional pressures within the parties that reduces the prospects for national cohesion and effective institutions. We conclude that political parties are the biggest drivers of division as they heavily influence the way of life of every Sierra Leonean. We intend to dedicate a separate piece to the role of the international community in the current state of division and weak accountability. However, for the purpose of paper, it is useful to bear in mind that, despite Sierra Leones’s commitments to international advisories, as well as the conditions and policies that accompany aid, there are concerns around the placating role the 11TECHNICAL AUDIT REPORT on the Social Security, Telecommunications, Civil Works and Energy sectors – Audit Service Sierra Leone - 2019 12 Cost of Corruption in Sierra Leone – CARL - May 2020 CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES OF GOVERNANCE VOL XIV 3 international community plays around incidences of conflict and corruption. This ranges from a deafening silence in the face of some abuses; to in some cases, putting their finances, authority and clout behind some of the very policies and programmes13 that promote division.
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